Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Brisbane for a day

We debated stopping for a day in Brisbane vs. passing it by to continue back toward Sydney. In the end, "we're right here, we should go see it" won out. Glad it did! We had fun wandering through the city, especially with all the neat public art.

For example, some kangaroos:

Maybe they're looking up at the clock tower:

Quite the bronze sculpture:

Some enthusiastic historical folks:

Bulbous tree:

Hey, we have a coffee shop in Brisbane named after us!

Our urban clue racing instincts call us to any time capsules anywhere:

Lovely morning on the Brisbane River, hanging out after a delicious breakfast at the Kitchen Sanitarium. We found some amazing vegetarian restaurants in all the big cities.

A memorial to firemen, dedicated to James Mooney who died when a keg of rum exploded while he was fighting a fire - the first recorded death of a fireman in Queensland (1877). While the subject is certainly somber, I can't help but marvel that this is not a common way to go. Seems in a way fitting for Australia.

Morning riddle (Kip, this is for you):

A funny book on the table at a coffee shop - called "Zombies HATE Stuff" and describing all the things that zombies don't like. For example, dodgeball. And bagpipes for some odd reason (made me giggle). You can imagine why they don't like vultures. Or ziplines...

This is the coffee shop where we found the book - the little sign says "This is the cafe you're looking for":

Checking out the ornate ceiling at the visitor center:

I think of this every time I do yoga now:

New construction, either of a high-rise or a rocket ship:

A neat tree in the botanic gardens:

A closer look at the tree and the birds nesting there:

Hey, it's a banyan fig! Seems familiar for some reason...

The Cube building at the University of Technology - with solar on the roof!

We took a little walk through campus, as did this odd bird, apparently:

Fun shaped walking bridge over the river:

Another pretty river view:

More Australian wildlife - animals just seem to show up. And many are not small. Or shy.

A wonderful statue of Confucius:

Meandering walking path with a roof plus vines growing along the sides:

A pagoda built in Nepal for an Expo in 1988:

And a Peace Pole!

The Wheel of Brisbane:

Fun city sign:

More wildlife at the Sciencentre:

I came looking for this plane, flown by Bert Hinkler from London to Darwin in 1928 (in stages over 15 days). Mr. Hinkler set many early records - and he was born in Bundaberg:

So this is what a termite mound looks like up close - sure is big! And solid:

Hey, I (kind of) recognize that ad on the bus! Too funny:

Here's one for Mom - I finally captured a little bit of all the loud/crazy bird noises we heard all over the country. There is at least one other bird in the background adding to the conversation:

Brisbane was great, it was fun going through that set of photos again.